Published from 1982-96, Fidelity magazine was the
predecessor of Culture Wars.

Super
Mario Escapes Again (With a Little Help From His Friends)

by James G. Bruen, Jr.

From the April 1993 issue of Fidelity
magazine

You may remember Mike Dwyre.
His story was told in the July/August 1992 issue of Fidelity. A Knight
of Columbus, he waged a militantly prochoice campaign for the Virginia House of
Delegates. Despite the demands of prolifers, his council refused to expel him,
claiming it was following the directions of the K of C’s national leadership
and the wishes of members of the hierarchy, including John Cardinal O’Connor. I
and several other Knights nevertheless filed a formal complaint under the
Order’s rules, alleging that Dwyre should be disciplined for giving scandal.
After a trial, the council suspended Dwyre indefinitely. When the article
ran in Fidelity, Dwyre still had time to appeal that decision. He did
not, and the suspension held.

In the article, I set forth the procedure that must
be followed to discipline a Knight who gives scandal, and I argued that all
publicly prochoice Knights should be forced to make the choice between their
proabortion stance and their membership in the Knights. In contrast, Russell
Shaw, national spokesman for the Knights, reacted to the Fidelity story
by telling the Catholic News Service that the suspension was a “local matter.”

Early in October, Cardinal
O’Connor addressed an assembly of Knights in New York and, based on the article
in Fidelity, strongly criticized prochoice Knights, who, he said, are
“giving public scandal.” He also noted that the Order’s rules require
suspension or expulsion of Knights guilty of giving scandal. His talk was
reported in his diocesan paper and in the secular press.

On the same day, Cardinal
O’Connor also wrote a lengthy letter
that appeared in the January issue of this magazine. In that letter, the
Cardinal took “strong exception to the use of my name in a fashion that could
be construed to support inaction on the part of the Knights of Columbus in
regard to the published positions and activities attributed to Mr. Mike Dwyre.”
Cardinal O’Connor also commented that it seemed to him “that due process was
followed” in the Dwyre case and that “the process ... could be helpful to
councils everywhere.”

After hearing the Cardinal’s
speech, a group of Knights decided to file a similar complaint alleging that
the proabortion statements, policies, and actions of Governor Mario Cuomo, a
Knight, required that he be sanctioned by the Order for giving scandal. The
group included more than a dozen Knights; I was not involved. They patterned
their complaint on that against Dwyre and attached a copy of the Fidelity
article. But Grand Knight Ben Fernando of Jamaica Council #337 bounced it back
to them as “improperly” drawn up. What gives here?

Although Mr. Shaw thought Dwyre’s suspension was a
local matter, the national K of C apparently agreed with my conclusion and that
of the Cardinal that it could be a helpful precedent for other councils. So, I
have confirmed, the Knights amended their rules in August to curtail further
filings! In what Jim Morgan, a New Jersey Knight long involved in the struggle
to discipline prochoice Knights, has dubbed the “Bruen Amendment,” the Order’s
rules now say that only a Knight from the miscreant’s local council may file a
complaint. The rules previously required any Knight, no matter what council he
was in, to file a complaint if he knew of the scandalous situation. (I am not
in the same council that Dwyre belonged to). And, to further restrict that
ability to file a complaint, the amended rules provide that only Third or
Fourth Degree Knights may file a complaint. (I am a First Degree Knight.)
Apparently First and Second Degree Knights are supposed to grin and bear the
scandalous situation!

It is incongruous for a
self-proclaimed prolife group to make it more difficult procedurally to
discipline the proabortion givers of scandal within their midst. The Knights
changed the rules so that proabortion politicians can be protected. One might
analogize this to changing the rules of a game in the middle of the game, but
this is no game. Abortion is an unspeakable crime, and those who promote it are
necessarily giving scandal. The Knights, however, seem more interested in
selling insurance or in claiming prominent politicians as members than they are
in giving unblemished witness to the sanctity of human life. And that’s not
chivalrous. It’s a shame.

The K of C prides itself on
its prolife stance and prolife activities, and Knights are supposed to be
"practical" Catholics. Nevertheless, the K of C includes men who are
publicly and adamantly proabortion or prochoice. Errant Knight: The Scandal
of Prochoice Knights by James G. Bruen, Jr. details the efforts of a group of individual
Knights to sanction a brother Knight who was a publicly prochoice politician.
It describes the personalities, pleadings, and internal K of C practices and
procedures that led to a sentence of indefinite suspension of the Knight after
a trial committee found him guilty of giving scandal, as well as the aftermath
of his conviction. Must reading for Knights and for all interested in the K of
C. Give a copy of this short e-book to every Knight you know. $2.99. Read
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